SAN DIEGO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 12/11/12 -- Harte-Hanks, Inc. (NYSE: HHS), a worldwide direct and targeted marketing company, has released its December 2012 Technology Purchase Index (TPI), which indicates an overall 21.2 percent increase in technology purchase intentions between Q2 2012 and Q3 2012 across a broad spectrum of North American businesses, government entities and educational institutions. Among specific technology areas, the latest index also shows a 15.4 percent increase in cloud initiatives, as well as significant increases in hardware and software purchase intentions. The Technology Purchase Index provides economists and technology marketers with information they can use to analyze technology buying cycles and predict future buying trends.

"The latest TPI data indicates that the post-recession refresh of selected technology is continuing in North America despite the uncertainty created by the presidential election and impending 'fiscal cliff' facing the U.S. government," said Randy Ilas, general manager of Harte-Hanks Market Intelligence. "The TPI provides evidence that businesses continue to invest in cloud solutions to remain competitive while the storing, mining and managing of so-called 'big data' continues to open up new opportunities for products such as hardware and software."

The December TPI shows that hardware purchase intentions are up by 17.7 percent since the previous quarter, with software initiatives up by 33.6 percent for the same period. Purchase intentions for communications equipment and services also were up by 13 percent. During the same period, the virtualization TPI dipped 2.9 percent -- another indicator of how the market is changing.

"Server virtualization technology has been strong for about three years," Ilas noted. "And now, with about 50 percent of servers virtualized, all the low-hanging fruit has been picked. Based on the index and our other ongoing market analyses, we believe that desktop and storage virtualization will continue to rise, but those technologies are still emerging so we're seeing a slower adoption rate."

The TPI focuses on purchase intentions within five key technology areas: cloud computing, virtualization, computer hardware, computer software and communications. The TPI includes a separate index for each of these areas, as well as an overall index.

CIO, CTO & Developer Resources

The data underpinning the TPI was gleaned from more than 180,000 interviews conducted by Harte-Hanks in connection with its Ci Pipeline® lead generation service, which identifies technology purchasing initiatives in North American business locations. Purchase intentions may be tied to aging equipment, business process improvements or investments in new business capabilities. As a result, changes in the TPI provide a possible indicator of future purchase levels and overall sector performance.

Harte-Hanks releases the Technology Purchase Index quarterly. In addition to quarterly updates, Harte-Hanks adapts the TPI as necessary to reflect changes in the specific purchase initiatives tracked by the index over time, as particular technologies achieve market saturation and new technologies emerge.

About Harte-Hanks®Harte-Hanks is a worldwide direct and targeted marketing company that provides marketing services and shopper advertising opportunities to local, regional, national and international consumer and business-to-business marketers. Visit the Harte-Hanks Web site at http://www.harte-hanks.com or call (800) 456-9748.

The Harte-Hanks Market Intelligence division monitors installed technology and spending plans at business, government and institutional sites in North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Latin America. This technology content is combined with the tracking of IT decision-makers and chief-level executives, allowing its customers to find the right opportunity with the right decision-maker and to act on it efficiently and effectively. Visit www.citdb.com/TPI or call (800) 854-8409.

Cloud computing budgets worldwide are reaching into the hundreds of billions of dollars, and no organization can survive long without some sort of cloud migration strategy. Each month brings new announcements, use cases, and success stories.